Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 252

Should You Tell People About Your WIP?

"So, what are you working on now?"

Do you mind telling people about your WIP (work in progress)? Or does it make you grit your teeth when they ask? Do you wonder why people never ask accountants what they're working on?

Usually, if you're out of the writing closet, this is a question that you're going to get from time to time. I get it pretty frequently from acquaintances who know I write.

Upside of telling them:

You get ideas—If I tell you about my WIP or you're a first reader and y...

Middles

When I was a kid in the late 1970s in Anderson, South Carolina, I'd sometimes have to go to the drugstore with my mother. This was not a fun trip for me. Other than Belk Department store, the drugstore was the most boring place in the world to me.

The only redeeming quality to this shopping trip was the comic books. The store had them on a wire rack. They were packaged in sets of three inside a plastic wrap. So you could see the comics on the front and the back of the 3-pack. Those

Nonverbal Communication

I was driving back from having lunch with my husband yesterday when I saw a little tableau playing out on the side of the road. Well, the road was actually a major highway and I was driving 74 (not 75 because I never go more than 9 miles over the speed limit), so my impression of the scene was a split-second one.

There were several construction workers standing at the bottom of an incline with their arms folded. There was another man who appeared to be a foreman. A furious foreman. He...

Enliven Your Writing, Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about books and manuscripts with wooden prose and a flat delivery.

Ways I thought a writer could jazz up the writing a bit were by changing the voice, revising the work, including vivid setting imagery, changing the sentence structure, and by supplying character movement.

Here are some other ways to enliven flat text:

Use more dialogue. A conversation between characters; as long as it's moving the plot along or creating some conflict, or playing a role; is a great w...

Enliven Your Writing, Part 1

Have you ever run into really flat writing?

It's the kind of wooden writing you see from many non-writers. Desultory, lifeless. There's no passion at all in it…just a straight narrative. A retelling of events.

It can be a trait for newbie writers, too. Eager to cross their t's and dot their i's, they might lose the energy and excitement in the passages they're penning.

I've even read scenes in published books that seem really flat. It's like the writer wasn't even trying that day....

Creating Unlikeable Characters

My daughter was a little bored yesterday afternoon, so I offered to play a game with her. I didn't want to play a long game with her (like Monopoly), and it happened that there was a deck of Old Maid cards very handy.

She did not want to play that game.

When I finally persuaded her to play, she shrieked whenever she got the card and did everything in her power to give it back to me. She was a wreck.

Luck was on her side and she won 2 out of 3 games. The one she lost really upset her. ...

Classes

As I mentioned on Thursday, you don't have to spend a lot of money to become a better writer. You can use your library card and get more information than you can ever find time to absorb.

Sometimes, though, we need a little extra help. When I was writing my first book, I was definitely aware of areas where I had shortcomings. I wanted more information on "show, don't tell." I wanted to know how to write a well-crafted synopsis. I wanted to learn more about creating well-rounded...

Talented Characters

Yesterday I stretched myself a little.

The stretching exercise involved the garbage disposal, which spitefully kicked the bucket on New Year's Day, following a visit by my husband's family.

I grabbed the phone number of the appliance repairman to throw myself on his mercy.

My husband, on the other hand, was intrigued. What was wrong with the garbage disposal? "Look--there's something lodged in there," he said. "Can you get me some pliers?"

I gave him a dubious look. Were pliers the ...

July 8th Resolutions

Originally posted July 8, 2009:

I'm making some new resolutions. Why not? Why make January 1 the only date where we impose formidable goals for ourselves? Besides, I'm tired of the January resolutions (that maybe didn't work out so well.)

Actually, I sort of like the idea of a mid-year goal. Yes---I know. The year is more than ...

14 Reasons Why Libraries are Writers' Best Friends

You don't have to spend a lot of money to become a better writer. That's a good thing because most writers don't have a ton of money to throw around.

The library has all the resources a writer needs. It's always been one of my favorite places on Earth. Here are the reasons why libraries are writers' best friends:

Research

*Researching your book: Libraries have computers with internet capabilities. They have books and periodicals on a multitude of different subjects. They also have...